


Don't Preach "Do What You Love" To People Who Do What They Must

by Draikinator



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Blood, Gen, Scene Rewrite, Violence, the battle between starclan and the dark forest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 10:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13925226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draikinator/pseuds/Draikinator
Summary: i sort of rewrote the scene where mapleshade killed spottedleaf because the whole thing was so silly, like, why did she just randomly hate sandstorm specifically, and come on, where are her kids, right?





	Don't Preach "Do What You Love" To People Who Do What They Must

Mapleshade threw herself on a scrawny brown clan cat, probably Windclan, digging her claws into his side and her teeth onto the vertebrae of his neck. She snapped its neck with a strength and power no living cat could ever hope to attain- a ferocity that only decades of training in the Place of No Stars could muster. She flipped him over, still spasming, putting one paw on his chin to tip his head back and out of the way, before tearing his throat out, just to be safe. It was never good to do things in half measures.

A black and white she-cat ran by her, obviously heading somewhere else, but Mapleshade lifted a single back paw and kicked her so hard in the shoulder that the she tumbled over and skidded to the ground, getting covered in mud. The she-cat struggled to get up, shaking mud from her muzzle and gasping for air, winded. Mapleshade leaped off of the scrawny brown tom and onto the black and white cat, revelling in the violence.

She held the clan cat’s front legs down against the wet earth with her forepaws, digging her razor sharp claws into the flesh, and churned her hind legs against the she-cat’s belly as she shrieked in agony. When she stopped screaming, Mapleshade tore her throat out, too.

When Mapleshade looked up, she saw someone she recognized. Sandstorm- easily one of Thunderclan’s most formidable warriors; not to mention Firestar’s mate, and demoralizing him would just be a bonus.

She barreled into the pale gold warrior with the force of all the devil’s strength, and the two of them went tumbling across the battlefield, both pelts stained with blood and dirt. Mapleshade pinned her down, holding her in a puddle as Sandstorm nonetheless pummeled her belly with her hind legs. Mapleshade, however, refused to move, using her greater strength to keep her enemy pinned, forcing her deeper into the water. 

“Mapleshade!” A voice called. Mapleshade flicked her eyes over with a sneer, to see Spottedleaf challenging her. Now that? That was a real opportunity. She released Sandstorm, no longer concerned with the petty death of a mortal cat. 

“Oh, ‘Leafy!” Mapleshade cooed as the golden cat behind her flailed in the mud and gasped for air, “So good to see you. I’d been wondering when we’d meet.”

“As have I,” Spottedleaf growled, ears flattened against her head. Battle raged around them, blood and spit flying through the air along with the caterwauls of a thousand dead cats.

“Are you going to fight me alone?” Mapleshade laughed, “A scrawny dead medicine cat? You’re brave, I’ll give you that.”

Spottedleaf shook her head, “I’m not here to fight you, Mapleshade. I’m here to remind you of why you started fighting in the first place- and why it’s time for you to stop!” With that, she stepped aside, revealing three tiny, star-speckled kittens. Light brown, dark brown, and patchy-calico.

Mapleshade froze, like ice, her eyes locked on the kittens in front of her, her breath captured in her throat.   
“Mama,” said Patchkit, stepping forward, past his siblings, “Why didn’t you come to Starclan? We miss you.”

Mapleshade’s legs shook, “I got vengeance for you, my loves. I made them suffer for letting you die.”

“We didn’t want you to make anyone suffer,” said Petalkit, “We wanted our Mama to come take care of us.”

“No, no-” Mapleshade stammered, “I- I got your vengeance.”

“We never wanted any vengeance!” cried Larchkit, jumping forward and puffing out his tiny chest, “We wanted our Mama! We didn’t want to be alone! You didn’t kill those people for us, you did it for yourself!”

“No, my loves, I…” Mapleshade took a step back, looking around at the circles of fighting cats as her head swam, “I…” She took another step forward, shaking her head, “No. I could never lie to you, my little ones,” She laughed, picking her head back up, snarling against the hot tears on her cheeks, “You’re right! This… I did this for me.”

She pushed back on her powerful haunches and shot forward towards them, only for Spottedleaf to slam into her first. She was fragile, like tearing through cobwebs. She was so easy to kill, and when she turned back to her starry kittens, a golden blurr slammed into her side and knocked her back into the mud, claws shredding her fur. No matter how hard she tried to get ablow in, Sandstorm only knocked her paws away, pressing her deeping into the soft earth.

It was all she could do to struggle to her paws and run.


End file.
